M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities (Arts), 2012

en_ZA

dc.description.abstract

In
this
research
project
I
propose
to
investigate
the
notion
of
memory
and
its
trace
in
the
work
of
fashion
designer
Clive
Rundle
(b.
1959).
This
positioning
of
the
work
in
the
context
of
memory
offers
an
approach
to
the
reading
of
the
fashion
processes
and
products;
one
of
various
research
options
that
could
be
used
to
analyse
the
creative
approach,
the
fashioned
objects
and
the
complex
displays
of
Clive
Rundle’s
fashion
within
the
broader
creative
and
social
context
of
a
post-­‐Apartheid
South
Africa.
The
inquiry
for
this
research
is
concerned
with
the
palimpsest,
as
witness
to
the
past
in
the
form
of
traces,
memories
and
histories.
The
evidence
or
renegotiation
of
the
past
in
the
present
in
fashion,
which
I
will
reference
in
this
research
is
what
Walter
Benjamin
identified
as
the
‘tigersprung’,
and
which
is
surfacing
in
the
construction
of
new
contemporary
fashion
narratives
of
a
number
of
contemporary
South
African
fashion
designers,
who
together
with
other
visual
artists
are
currently
exploring
notions
of
memory
and
history
as
catalysts
for
remembrance,
social
commentary
and
healing.
By
exploring
the
role
of
memory
and
its
trace
in
Clive
Rundle’s
work,
I
hope
to
investigate
the
layers
in
the
palimpsest
that
informs
the
work.
In
this
research
I
aim
to
explore
how
Rundle’s
work
could
offer
an
opportunity
to
investigate
whether
notions
of
loss
and
mourning
can
be
expressed
through
fashion,
how
the
past
resurfaces
in
fashion,
andthis
can
help
locate
a
current understanding
of
transformation
in
a
post-­‐modern
South
Africa.
whether